Romans 13:8-13
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
8 Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.(A) 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, [namely] “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”(B) 10 Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.(C)
Awareness of the End of Time.[a] 11 And do this because you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;(D) 12 the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness [and] put on the armor of light;(E) 13 let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day,[b] not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy.(F)
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- 13:11–14 These verses provide the motivation for the love that is encouraged in Rom 13:8–10.
- 13:13 Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day: the behavior described in Rom 1:29–30 is now to be reversed. Secular moralists were fond of making references to people who could not wait for nightfall to do their carousing. Paul says that Christians claim to be people of the new day that will dawn with the return of Christ. Instead of planning for nighttime behavior they should be concentrating on conduct that is consonant with avowed interest in the Lord’s return.
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